


'Til The End Of The Line

by gingerwithahintofpsychopathy



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers, Captain America:TWS fix-it, Crossdressing, Fix-It, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, crossdressing steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 18:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1480504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerwithahintofpsychopathy/pseuds/gingerwithahintofpsychopathy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winter Soldier visits the local museum and rediscovers Bucky Barnes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	'Til The End Of The Line

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sherloki19](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sherloki19/gifts).



> **CAP 2 SPOILERS**
> 
> This was spawned because I saw Cap 2 yesterday with my darling sherloki19 and we cried and were generally like WHAT at the end of the movie because there was like NO WINTER SOLDIER CLOSURE OMFG DUDE and wow we have so many theories that I won't go into because it would take a while and I'm probably gonna make them into fanfic. Anyway so the second post-credits bit where The Winter Soldier is looking up at Bucky's biography? I decided that I would make it all better and this is my try at doing so. 
> 
> THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE WHO LEFT KUDOS ON STAR SPANGLED MAN WITH A PUN. YOU HAVE MADE ME SO HAPPY AND BOOSTED MY CONFIDENCE AND I FUCKING LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU. *MWAH*

Sgt James Buchanan Barnes. Best friend of Steve Rogers (Captain America), served in the 107th, member of the Howling Commandos. The Winter Soldier reads the information on the museum's board with detached curiosity and an itch in the back of his mind.

 

_Your name is James Buchanan Barnes!_

 

The Winter Soldier stares at the board, remembering the target's anguished expression.

 

_You know me!_

 

That moment of uncertainty, of possibility, before he remembered that he has never been anything but HYDRA's asset.

 

_No I DON'T!_

 

The smell of blood and burning and the screech of twisting metal as they fell, the target disappearing from sight as the Winter Soldier hung desperately on.

 

_Bucky?_

 

_Who the hell is Bucky?_

 

 _I_ am Bucky, he thinks, testing it out. “Bucky,” he says quietly. It sounds right, righter than The Winter Soldier or The Asset. “Bucky,” he repeats, turning to the Captain America biography. “ _Steve._ ”

 

Memories flood in.

 

“ _Steve, you're gonna get yourself into a fight someday that's too big for ya, and I won't be around to help and then where'll you be?”_

 

“ _I was doin' just fine!” Steve says defiantly, wiping blood from his chin and taking uneven, strained breaths._

 

“ _Yeah, that's why you look like you've been thrown down a flight of stairs or somethin'. Why d'you do this to yourself, Steve?”_

 

“ _I don't like bullies,” Steve mutters. His nose is still steadily dripping blood._

 

“ _Let's get you home, huh?” Bucky wraps an arm around Steve's skinny shoulders and helps him limp to safety._

 

The Winter Soldier/Bucky/The Asset falls to the floor, clutching his head. “Who am I?” he groans, ignoring the worried mutterings from around him. Is he Bucky or The Winter Soldier or both or neither?

 

“ _It's not that bad,” Steve coughs, entire body shaking._

 

“ _Steve, it's pneumonia.” Bucky holds Steve's bony, fragile hand and strokes it with his thumb. Steve smiles weakly._

 

“ _Nothin' I haven't dealt with before,” Steve rasps._

 

“ _Yeah, an' it nearly killed you last time,” Bucky points out, releasing Steve's hand to fetch the antibiotics on the kitchen table and the ugly patchwork blanket their neighbour knitted for Steve's last bout of illness._

 

“ _More drugs? You tryna get me hooked, Buck?” Steve says as he takes the antibiotics, grimacing at their bitterness on his tongue._

 

“ _Yup,” Bucky says, laying the blanket across him to stop the shivers. “I'm gonna get you hooked so you can't ever leave me.” He leans in and kisses Steve's brow._

 

“ _I hate being sick – it means you can't kiss me properly,” Steve says cheekily, clutching at the blanket._

 

“ _Maybe that'll motivate you to get better,” Bucky teases. “You want soup?”_

 

“ _Yes please,” Steve yawns as Bucky wipes a flannel across his clammy, sweat-covered forehead. “That sounds nice.”_

 

Steve and Bucky, Bucky and Steve. It sounds right. He remembers and he _wants_ , so much that it hurts, but he remembers calling Steve the target and shooting him in the leg, the back, somewhere else that he couldn't see through the smoke. He dragged Steve from the river without any idea why he was saving who he was ordered to kill, but it turns out he knew all along, just had to unlock the knowledge.

 

_Steve blushes in the doorway, hands playing nervously with his skirts. “Buck, I must look ridiculous.”_

 

“ _You look gorgeous,” Bucky tells him, and it's true. Steve has high, delicate cheekbones and wide eyes that are accented by the light dusting of eyeshadow on his lids; his fine-boned hands are small enough and his arms are soft enough to pass for female when he wears his dress, collarbones exposed by a sweetheart neckline lined with white lace. His petticoats – rose-pink and floaty – peek out from underneath the knee-length red skirt, which is covered in large white spots. His legs, encased in sheer stockings, are graceful but coltish, and his stockinged feet are dainty where he shifts from foot to foot with a blush high on his cheeks that no makeup adequately replicates. Although, speaking of makeup..._

 

“ _Come here,” Bucky tells Steve softly, and delights in the delicate steps as Steve makes his way across the room. He takes the stick of light pink lipstick from Steve's dress pocket and applies it to his soft lips with care. Steve stays absolutely still throughout, and Bucky rewards him with a kiss._

 

“ _You're beautiful,” he says, and Steve averts his eyes._

 

“ _Shuddup, Buck,” he says bashfully, his voice at odds with his current appearance. “Just kiss me again or somethin' before I die of embarrassment or old age.”_

 

_Bucky leans forward and does as he's told, and when he reaches a hand under Steve's skirts Steve definitely ain't embarrassed by the situation._

 

Bucky gasps back into the present, confused and overwhelmed and aroused as hell. “You alright, sir?” asks a museum employee, who steps backwards as he sees Bucky's face, glancing between him and his face on the wall.

 

“I'm fine,” Bucky growls. “Don't say anything or I will kill you, and I don't wanna do that.” The Winter Soldier is in his tone now, and the employee backs away.

 

“I don't want any trouble,” he says, flicking a blonde fringe from his eyes. “You sure you're okay?”

  
Bucky bristles at the concern, and The Winter Soldier reacts before he can blink, a hand pulling his gun from the pocket of his hoodie. Bucky stops himself before it's in the open. “Just great,” he says, and strides outta there with his head bowed as memories roil through his mind like a dam breaking, as uncontrollable as rushing water.

 

He has to find Steve.

 

The Internet is amazing, after some teenager with a bored expression and mouthful of chewing gum shows him the basics. He finds Steve's – Captain America's – apartment easily, using something called Google, and it's only fifteen minutes away by foot, ten if he runs. He memorises the map and starts running.

 

He knocks, a little desperate, and when there's no answer he breaks down the door. The apartment is in ruins, glass and wood and plaster strewn across the floor. Bucky curses, tears pricking his eyes.

 

_I'm with you 'til the end of the line._

 

“Or not,” he mutters to himself bitterly, sitting and laughing quietly in a way that isn't from real amusement amongst the rubble.

 

 **Finish the objective,** says The Winter Soldier. Bucky refuses. Steve isn't a target anymore, he's a friend... a lover? Steve ain't a dame, certainly, but Bucky's seen a few couples made of two dames and one made up of two guys. Maybe it ain't so bad to love someone who's the same sex as you anymore. A lot's changed in the time he's been frozen and... brainwashed, he guesses.

 

He hears footsteps and looks up, knife ready in his sleeve. A man stands there, the one who had the metal wings. The man points a gun at him and Bucky points his own gun and bares the knife with a snarl.

 

“I will put you down,” the man threatens. “Put the weapons on the floor.”

 

“Where's Steve?” Bucky asks, hating how weak and vulnerable he sounds.

 

“What?” The man's gun drops for a moment.

 

“Where's Steve?” Bucky repeats, stronger this time. “I gotta talk to Steve.”

 

_Who the hell is Bucky?_

 

“I'm Bucky,” he says. “I didn't remember before.”

 

Steve steps into view, stands next to the man. “Stand down, Sam.” The man holsters his gun. Bucky puts his gun in his pocket but keeps the knife out. “What is this, Buck? You back or is this just a ruse to kill me?” There's some padding under Steve's shirt where Bucky shot him, and Bucky winces at the reminder of what he has done. A memory resurfaces, swamping him.

 

_Steve's mom hands him a t-shirt for him to put on over the dressings covering his torso. They pad out his frail body and ironically make him look healthier, as if he has meat on his bones._

 

“ _You gotta stop doing this,” Sarah says, exasperation and fondness in her voice. There's a smudge of Steve's blood on her cheek where she's itched it after cleaning him up, and Bucky thinks she's the most wonderful dame he'll ever know. He tells her so and she laughs._

 

“ _Don't try'n charm me, James Barnes,” she laughs. “I ain't that easily swayed. Keep him outta trouble, hear me?”_

 

“ _Yes ma'am,” Bucky grins, and they both know it's a lie._

 

“Sarah?” Bucky says, disoriented. Steve's eyes narrow.

 

“How do I know this isn't a HYDRA trick?” Steve asks. “How do I know you haven't just read through my file?”

 

Bucky tries to think of something that wouldn't be in a file, and it comes to him almost immediately. “I remember the red dress,” he says, suppressing a blush. Steve's cheeks redden.

 

“Oh,” he says. Sam looks between them with a raised eyebrow.

 

“I'm guessing this is something I shouldn't pry into,” he says. “You okay for me to go, Steve?”

 

“Yeah, sure.” Steve and Bucky don't break eye contact as he leaves. “I missed you so much, Buck. I know you didn't miss me – it's hard to miss someone you don't remember – but I-”

 

“I...” Bucky begins, but doesn't know what to say. There's so much. “I'm sorry,” he goes for finally, avoiding looking at the bulge of the bandages he made necessary.

 

“That wasn't you,” Steve says, even as The Winter Soldier whispers **Finish the objective** in Bucky's ear.

 

“It'll always be a part of me now,” Bucky tells him, shaking off the Soldier's influence. He feels tears well up in his eyes and wipes them abruptly away.

 

“We can deal with it,” Steve replies, crossing the room. “I'm with you 'til the end of the line, remember?”

 

Bucky lets Steve pull him into a hug, his body heat warming Bucky's metal arm. “Yeah, I remember,” he says. “I won't ever forget it again.”

 


End file.
